The assignee of the present invention manufactures and deploys spacecraft for, inter alia, communications and broadcast services. Market demands for such spacecraft have imposed increasingly stringent requirements on spacecraft payload capacity. To meet these demands, higher power spacecraft with larger antenna apertures are desirable.
Launch vehicle compatibility is a second requirement faced by a spacecraft designer. The increased performance requirements are only advantageously met if compatibility with conventional, commercially available launch vehicles is maintained. Accordingly, a spacecraft, as configured for launch, is desirably made compatible with the mass and fairing envelope constraints of such launch vehicles as, for example, Ariane V, Atlas XEPF, Proton, and Sea Launch.
Thus, there is a need for a high capacity spacecraft that is compatible with such conventional launch vehicle constraints.